Australian Engineering Code of Ethics | Report

Running head: AUSTRALIAN ENGINEERING CODE OF ETHICS
AUSTRALIAN ENGINEERING CODE OF ETHICS
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1AUSTRALIAN ENGINEERING CODE OF ETHICS
Introduction
The engineers are obligatory to practice within the scope of experience and knowledge.
The same is codified in Engineers Australian Code of Ethics. The engineers in Australia identify
the ethical standards and values are continuing, principles of approved conduct are not fixed
permanently. The standards of the community, their aspirations and requirements of the practice
of engineering will change and develop over time. Therefore the accusation of non-compliance
will be assessed and managed in pursuance to the punitive regulations.
Discussion
The code of ethics of engineers in Australian has four main areas. That is, engineers are
obliged to exhibit honesty. The engineers are anticipated to act on the foundation of well-
informed ethics, trustworthy and honest and esteem the self-respect of other individuals. It
implies that members who are engaged in the engineering profession will have to conduct
impartially and without any sort of favour (Thiel, 2019). Even though the same implies personal
discomfort that certain suggested course of the act is inadvisable due to the challenges
encountered by an engineer that might not be probable to overcome. Secondly, engineers are
bound to maintain proficient capability through continuing personal advance, learning and
monitoring from the leaders and peers. Thirdly the engineers are anticipated to symbolize the
profession in a trustworthy and honest manner and also by demonstrating their proficiency in
proper manner and by the advancement of development and skills of al professional colleagues
(Babri, 2016). Fourthly to advance sustainability that is to accomplish the work in the manner

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that identifies all of the stakeholders involving clients’ community as well as suppliers.
Furthermore, to conduct their work with the requirement and needs of the upcoming generation.
In the case study, Tedi Tailings dam was demolished in the earthquake preceding
it has used. BHP was enduring his mineral handling without the dam primarily as it had been
argued by BHP that it would be too costly to reconstruct it. This was resulting in the action were
conducted with Teilings being diverted to Tedi River, causing severe social and environmental
harm in that zone. The activities conducted by the company was made in contradiction to the
Australian code of ethics. The activities conducted by the company was made in violation of the
objective of promoting sustainability (Evans, 2015). This particular ethical code implies that all
the engineers must involve responsibly with the stakeholders and community. It includes being
thoughtful to public concerns.
The engineers should inform the clients or employees of the probable outcome of the
suggested action on the society as well as to the environment. Furthermore, it also involves
advancing the engagement of all the stakeholders as well as the community in the processes and
decisions that might put an impact on them and also on the environment. The activities
conducted by the company put severe harm to the environment and also to the community. The
four goals of engineering ethics comprising of demonstrating integrity, practice competency,
exercise leadership and also to promote sustainability (Taylor et al., 2017). The pressure that
forced the company to act unethically in contrary to the Australian engineering code of ethics is
the stress to meet impractical objectives. In the instant case, the pressure that was created is a
dam which required to be reconstructed is expensive, and for that, they operate the plant without
the tailing dam.

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The engineering is regarded as a learned and important profession. Thus engineers as the
associate of the profession are anticipated to display the highest values of integrity and honesty
(Davis, 2015). The engineers have a crucial and undeviating effect on the quality of all life for all
individuals. Thus the services which are offered by engineers necessitate impartiality, honesty
equity, and fairness and should be dedicated to the safeguarding public health, safety as well as
the welfare of the community (Abbott Jr, 2017). The engineers should conduct under principles
of professional behaviour that necessitates obedience to the highest doctrines of ethical
behaviour.
Therefore the engineers shall not endeavour to harm, falsely or maliciously,
indirectly or directly, the professional prospects, reputation, employment or practice of other
engineers. Furthermore, the engineers who consider others are guilty of illegal or unethical
practice shall put forward the information to the appropriate authority for necessary action
( Mouton et al., 2015).
Therefore the act that is implemented by an engineer must conduct under the principles of
professional behaviour that necessitates coherence to the doctrines of code of conduct. Thus the
act that is performed by the engineers should not pose a threat or harm to the environment or the
community at large if the action is detrimental and cause damage or harm to the environment and
people that are not considered to be the ethically correct decision. The engineers shall hold
paramount the welfare, health, the safety of the public in the discharge of the professional
obligation. In addition to that shall conduct services in the zones of their competence (dos Santos
Queirós, 2019).
The Tedi environmental calamity caused injury to the environment along 1000 kilometres
of Tedi river. The survives of 50,000 people have been disturbed. It is one of the worst

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environmental calamity that is initiated by humans. In the situation, if I am appointed as an
engineer at BHP, the decision that adopted must reflect the welfare of the environment and also
to the community. That implies that the decision adopted by me must be made in pursuance to
the ethical codes as envisaged in the Australian code of ethics. Therefore the proposed action that
is implemented is to repair the dam and then initiate the operation. Though the decision put an
adverse impact on the company, however the same is considered to be advantageous and also
ethically sound. Thus in professional practice, the act that is performed must be made in
compliance with the principles of ethics. However, an action contrary to the codes of ethics may
impose punishment by the regulatory authority.
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded from the above-mentioned discussion that because of complex
demand on structural and civil engineers in the globalized regular work-life the significance of
ethical codes enhanced in the recent period. Therefore the codes of professional behaviour are
the conscience of the profession of engineering.

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References
Abbott Jr, D. M. (2017). Brief history and application of enforceable professional geoscience
ethics codes. Scientific Integrity and Ethics: With Applications to the Geosciences, 91-
109.
Babri, M. (2016). The Corporate Code of Ethics at Home, Far Away and in Between:
Sociomaterial Translations of a Traveling Code (Doctoral dissertation, Umeå
University).
Davis, M. (2015). “Global Engineering Ethics”: Re-inventing the Wheel?. In Engineering ethics
for a globalized world (pp. 69-78). Springer, Cham.
dos Santos Queirós, A. (2019). Globalization and Global Code of Tourism Ethics António dos
Santos Queirós (Lisbon University, Portugal) Copyright:© 2019| Pages: 26.
Evans, G. (2015). Ethical codes in youth work: a comparative analysis. Ethics and Social
Welfare, 9(4), 420-426.
Mouton, F., Malan, M. M., Kimppa, K. K., & Venter, H. S. (2015). Necessity for ethics in social
engineering research. Computers & Security, 55, 114-127.

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Taylor, A. R., Lutz, B., Hampton, C., Lee, W. C., & Watford, B. A. (2017, June). Critical
Pedagogies and First-year Engineering Students’ Conceptions of’What it Means to be an
Engineer’. In ASEE Annu. Conf. Expo. Conf. Proc.
Thiel, D. V. (2019). Advanced ethics for engineers. In WEC2019: World Engineers Convention
2019 (p. 1430). Engineers Australia.